Naoko Tsujita

Project Description

B.Mus (Acadia)M.Mus (U of T)

Naoko Tsujita started playing percussion at the age of nine in Japan, where she studied marimba with Mika Stoltzman, as well as percussion with Takashi Fukuda.

After she moved to Canada, she studied with Mark Adam and Ken Shorley at Acadia University, and Mark Duggan, Beverley Johnston, and Aiyun Huang at the University of Toronto. She has also received lessons and masterclasses from well-known marimbists and percussionists such as Momoko Kamiya, Katarzyna My?ka, Emmanuel Séjourné, Bob Becker, and Russell Hartenberger.

She has won several awards in competitions throughout her career, receiving the gold prize in the Kyusyu Music Competition, as well as placing as a finalist in the South Japan Music Competition. Most recently, in 2017, she won the University of Toronto Symphony Orchestra Concerto Competition, which allowed her to perform with orchestra as a soloist.

In 2018, she has been involved with several premieres of new works, including her own compositions. She premiered two percussion ensemble pieces by Bob Becker and Paulo Brito in Walter Hall, Toronto. In January, she also premiered a new set of six compositions for guitar and marimba at the Alte Schmiede Kunstverein, in Vienna, Austria.

Naoko holds degrees from the Oita Prefectural College of Arts and Culture, and holds a B. Mus degree from Acadia University, as well as an M. Mus from the University of Toronto.

Get to know Naoko…Beyond the Bio!

Hobbies: Baking

Musical Influences: Nature, Studio Ghibli music

Favourite food: Gamjatang, Indian curry

Least favourite food: very spicy food

Favourite music: Schederazade

Favourite song: Everything by Misia

Favourite movie: Nodame cantabile

Favourite movie music: Harry Potter soundtrack

Favourite musical theatre/opera: West side story

Best quote from your teacher: you can’t be everything but you can be anything

Favourite book: I do not need effort! “Dream” realization How to make a brain, Hideaki Tomabei

Best thing about teaching at ABC: Happy to share my knowledge and experience with wonderful students

Latest Homework from Naoko

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What to practice: Base Drum Exercise. Rudiment #4, and 6. Please try #3 if you have time.

How to practice: For the rudiment #4, try bouncing the stick as long as you can without controlling it. For the rudiment #6, practice RRLLRRLL… with quoter notes, 8th notes, and 16th notes. I would like you to focus on your hands movement. “How are they moving? Do you feel something different on your right and left hands? How can you make the sounds even?” For “Should I Stay Or Should I Go”, focus on the beats that are circled. You can play at your comfortable tempo at first and try rising the tempo slightly. In addition, play the beats at the very slow tempo to make sure that the notes you play with a hand and a foot together actually hit the drums at the same time.

Eric

Recommended minutes to practice: 20-30 minutes per day

What to practice: Rudiment #4, 6, and 7.

How to practice: Try to make bounces as many as possible by one stroke for #4. For #6, use #1 rhythm pattern and practice double stroke. e.g) R R L L, R R L L R R L L, RRLLRRLLRRLLRRLL.

Sylvie

Recommended minutes to practice: 30 minutes per day

What to practice: Rudiment #4 and 6.

How to practice: Use the bouncing technique instead of the down stroke. I suggest to practice with different dynamics, f, mf, mp, p, crescendo and decrescendo for #2 and 3. For #4, make bounces as many as possible by one stroke. For #6, use #1 rhythm pattern and practice double stroke. e.g) R R L L, R R L L R R L L, RRLLRRLLRRLLRRLL. When the double stroke gets fast, I suggest you to think about playing two notes by one stroke. Hand down = 1 note, hand up = 1 note.

What to practice: Base Drum Exercise. Rudiment #2, 4, and 6. Please try #3 if you have time.

How to practice: For the rudiments #2, say “pa-ka-la-ta—” or “tri-pa-la-ta—” etc. For the rudiments #3, say “pa-ka-la-pa-ka-la-ta——” or “tri-pa-la-tri-pa-la-ta——” etc. Speaking the rhythm before you start playing helps you to understand the rhythm and internalise it. For the rudiment #4, try bouncing the stick as long as you can without controlling it. For the rudiment #6, practice RRLLRRLL… with quoter notes, 8th notes, and 16th notes. For “Should I Stay Or Should I Go”, focus on the beats that are circled. You can play at your comfortable tempo at first and try rising the tempo slightly. In addition, play the beats at the very slow tempo to make sure that the notes you play with a hand and a foot together actually hit the drums at the same time.

How to practice: Use the bouncing technique instead of the down stroke. I suggest to practice with different dynamics, f, mf, mp, p, crescendo and decrescendo for #2 and 3. For #4, make bounces as many as possible by one stroke. For #6, use #1 rhythm pattern and practice double stroke. e.g) R R L L, R R L L R R L L, RRLLRRLLRRLLRRLL. When the double stroke gets fast, I suggest you to think about playing two notes by one stroke. Hand down = 1 note, hand up = 1 note.

What to practice: Rudiment #2, 4, and 6. Please try #3 if you have time. “Should I Stay Or Should I Go”.

How to practice: For the rudiments #2, say “pa-ka-la-ta—” or “tri-pa-la-ta—” etc. For the rudiments #3, say “pa-ka-la-pa-ka-la-ta——” or “tri-pa-la-tri-pa-la-ta——” etc. Speaking the rhythm before you start playing helps you to understand the rhythm and internalise it. For the rudiment #4, try bouncing the stick as long as you can without controlling it. For the rudiment #6, practice RRLLRRLL… with quoter notes, 8th notes, and 16th notes. For “Should I Stay Or Should I Go”, focus on the beats that are circled. You can play at your comfortable tempo at first and try rising the tempo slightly. In addition, play the beats at the very slow tempo to make sure that the notes you play with a hand and a foot together actually hit the drums at the same time.

How parents can support practice: Creating a space and time for your child to focus on their practice session everyday bases will help them developing a great practice habit.

Eric

Recommended minutes to practice: 20-30 minutes per day

What to practice: “Back In Black”.

How to practice: Speak the rhythm before you play it (especially focus on the second system). Playing with the audio is fun, but I recommend to sing the drum part with the audio! So that you can hear how your part is related to the other instruments. If you have time, play take a look at the rudiment #2 and #3.

Sylvie

Recommended minutes to practice: 30 minutes per day

What to practice: Paradiddle #1, 2, and 3 WITHOUT accents. Rudiments #2, 3, and 4.

How to practice: Use the bouncing technique instead of the down stroke. I suggest to practice with different dynamics, f, mf, mp, and p.

What to practice: Two drum beats from “Should I Stay Or Should I Go” that we worked on in your lesson.

How to practice: First of all, practice very slowly and make sure that your hands and feet coordination is right. And then, play the beat for a minute or two continuously to get used to it. Once you get the rhythms, use metronome to see the speed you are at and slowly rise the tempo up to the number I wrote on your chart.

How parents can support practice: Creating a space and time for your child to focus on their practice session everyday bases will help them developing a great practice habit.

Eric

Recommended minutes to practice: 20-30 minutes per day

What to practice: The new drum beats from “Back In Black”.

How to practice: You were able to play the new drum beats along with the audio, which was fantastic! Now, I would like you to take the tempo down and try to nail each note on the beats. It is also very important to listen to the sounds you make. Thorough practice develop your sense of time and the quality of your sounds.

How parents can support practice: Creating a space and time for your child to focus on their practice session everyday bases will help them developing a great practice habit.

Sylvie

Recommended minutes to practice: 20-30 minutes per day

What to practice: paradiddle #1 with accents and a few drum beats excerpts from “The One Room Disco”.

How to practice: I would suggest you to focus on sticking for the paradiddle practice. The distance from a top of the stick to a drum head often decide dynamics. Your normal distance between the drum head and the top of the stick is relative to the accented notes. Therefore, you might want to practice controlling your ticks to play paradiddles slightly above from the drum head, which is around a inch or two, in order to play non-accented notes. In addition, please keep in your mind to pay attention to your breathing during your practice session.

How parents can support practice: Creating a space and time for your child to focus on their practice session everyday bases will help them developing a great practice habit.

What to practice: Drum beats #1-#8 from last week and “Should I Stay Or Should I Go”

How to practice: The new drum patterns on “Should I Stay Or Should I Go” are slightly tricky. I suggest you to practice your hands and feet separate. Once you get used to playing the pattern with your hands and the right foot individually, you can put them together in the slow tempo. I recommend to not push the tempo until you feel comfortable with the rhythm.

How parents can support practice: Creating a space and time for your child to focus on their practice session everyday bases will help them developing a great practice habit.

Eric

Recommended minutes to practice: 20-30 minutes per day

What to practice: drum-beats #6 from last week and a new drum beat.

How to practice: I would suggest you to practice your hands and feet separate at first. Please make sure that you are playing high-hat and snare drum comfortably without hitting them hard. Practice slow is always better idea to learn new drum beat.

How parents can support practice: Creating a space and time for your child to focus on their practice session everyday bases will help them developing a great practice habit.

Sylvie

Recommended minutes to practice: 20-30 minutes per day

What to practice: paradiddles #1-#4 and a high-hat exercise.

How to practice: I recommend to practice paradiddle #1 at first. It might takes you sometime to get comfortable with it, but that is very normal. Once you get the sticking of the paradiddle, I suggest you to add an accent on every down beat. Although, this is optional. For the high-hat exercise, please make sure to practice slow and listen to the sound you make.

How parents can support practice: Creating a space and time for your child to focus on their practice session everyday bases will help them developing a great practice habit.

How to practice: first of all, I suggest you to sing the base-drum pattern BEFORE you play. Second, play only the base-drum pattern you sung. Finally, play the all parts include the High-Hat and Snare-drum parts. ADVANCED practice: I would like you to practice playing all the drum-beat patterns from #1 to #8 without stopping and starting as we tried in the lesson.

How parents can support practice: Creating a space and time for your child to focus on their practice session everyday bases will help them developing a great practice habit.

Eric

Recommended minutes to practice: 20-30 minutes per day

What to practice: drum-beats #5 and #6 which I wrote down on your paper.

How to practice: I encourage you to sing the base-drum pattern first and play only the pattern on the base-drum second. Finally, you can add your hands to play high-hat and snare drum to practice the coordination. Please keep in your mind the simple movement of your wrists that we talked about in your lesson.

How parents can support practice: Creating a space and time for your child to focus on their practice session everyday bases will help them developing a great practice habit.

Sylvie

Recommended minutes to practice: 20-30 minutes per day

What to practice: Sing and play your composition #1-#5 and add the base-drum on each beat (1, 2, 3, 4).

How to practice: I encourage you to speak the rhythms in two ways. 1, numeral singing (one, e, and, a). 2, sound singing (ta ka ta ka, or ti ki ti ki, etc). Once you feel comfortable singing the rhythms, then, add the base-drum as a quoter note.

How parents can support practice: Creating a space and time for your child to focus on their practice session everyday bases will help them developing a great practice habit.